Star Trek & Steampunk

This weekend is the 19th annual Starbase Indy in Indianapolis, Indiana to which myself and a few other Pandora Society folks will be in attendance, but I have no Star Trek attire, so I shall be doing the same thing I did when I first attended the con back in 2011, I shall dress in my Steampunk garb. But how out of place is neo-Victorian wear at a Star Trek convention?

Steampunk Femme Data

Steampunks are certainly found in pretty much all conventions and these past few years seems to be the default costume for many at DragonCon, but three years ago I was pretty much the only Steampunk at Starbase Indy. There were several Doctor Who cosplayers who welcomed me into their ranks; frequently my Steampunk attire is mistaken for the Doctor anyway which prompted me to start cosplaying the eighth Doctor . . . funnily enough my “Night of the Doctor” outfit then inspired people to think that I was Bilbo Baggins . . . ah well. So I am on a mission this weekend to find Steampunk Star Trek costumers!

This past April the International Steampunk Symposium (then known as the Steampunk Empire Symposium) had Steampunk Star Wars (Steam Wars) as its theme, and looking around DragonCon and other events you will see many Star Wars characters that have been Steampunked, but not so many from Star Trek. Part of this could be that the Star Wars aesthetic of a “worn universe” lends itself to the rusted and brown palette of Steampunk, whereas Star Trek leans very much toward clean and sterile environments and appearance.

Steampunk Seven of Nine at TeslaCon.

The unisex nature of Trek uniforms post The Motion Picture and The Next Generation seem to set a challenge for adapting the look into a Victorian wardrobe which is so gender divided, but of all the rare attempts I have seen in person it tends to be female cosplayers adapting the uniform with long skirts and bustles as pictured above with “Steampunk Femme Data.” There is, however, one uniform design from The Next Generation that cries out to be adapted into a Victorian Steampunk variation seeing as it is essentially frock coat length anyway . . . the Next Generation dress uniform!

The dress uniform design is heavily based on a Victorian frock coat.

Given time, resources, and inclination, this would absolutely be the outfit that I would want to adapt for an even more neo-Victorian feel, and it will utterly make my con if I find someone who has done this 🙂

We shall continue this exploration of Steampunk and Star Trek over the course of this weekend, but if you have a Steampunk Star Trek outfit that you would like us to feature then please Contact Us so that we can get your picture and post it in one the follow up articles to this one.

Meanwhile, journey with us this weekend as we boldly go where no Steampunks have gone before! . . . well, except for that time in 2011 🙂